David Axelrod, an adviser to former President Barack Obama, said Wednesday that former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton should “move on” from the 2016 election and stop making excuses for her defeat.
During an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour at the Women for Women International conference in New York on Tuesday, Clinton said that she takes “absolute personal responsibility” for her loss before pointing to WikiLeaks and FBI Director James Comey as the reasons behind that loss.
“I was on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey’s letter on Oct. 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off,” she said.
On CNN's "New Day" on Wednesday, Axelrod said that Clinton has “a legitimate beef” against Comey because it was a factor in the outcome of the election. He then turned to mistakes made by her campaign.
“But Jim Comey didn’t tell her not to campaign in Wisconsin after the convention,” Axelrod said. “Jim Comey didn’t say not to put any resources in Michigan until the final week of the campaign. And one of the things that hindered her in the campaign was a sense that she never fully was willing to take responsibility for her mistakes, particularly that server.”
“And, you know, so if I were her, if I were advising her, I would say don’t do this, don’t go back and appear as if you are shifting responsibility off of yourself,” he said. “She said the words I am responsible, but everything else suggested she doesn’t feel that way and I don’t think that helps her in the long run. So if I were her, I would move on.”
Axelrod blasted Clinton for losing to President Donald Trump.
"It takes a lot of work to lose to Donald Trump, let me tell you," Axelrod said. "He was the least popular presidential candidate to win in the history of polling, and so it wasn't just the Comey letter. The fact that she was in a position to lose because of the Comey letter is something that deserves some introspection."
He also said that no one in the country want's to "relitigate" last year's election "except the combatants who keep going back to it."
"If I were her I would move on."
.@davidaxelrod on Hillary Clinton's comments on 2016 election. https://t.co/kLigYcL1sZ
— New Day (@NewDay) May 3, 2017
(H/T The Hill)
